CBS New Year’s Special ‘Nashville’s Big Bash’ Hits High Note With 75% Viewer Growth

CBS rang in the new year with a ratings victory for Nashville’s Big Bash.

The country music program averaged an audience of 7.85M across the night, marking a 75% increase over last year.

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Nashville’s Big Bash aired from 7:30 p.m. -1 a.m. ET with an interruption for local news to air in the 10 p.m. half hour. During the first 7:30 to 10 stretch, CBS averaged 8.21M viewers, which is up 113% from last year’s 3.9M.

Unsurprisingly, the program peaked right as it began with 11.93M viewers trailing over from NFL coverage (Chargers-Broncos or Chiefs-Bengals, depending on the market).

After the local news break, the final hour of primetime coverage averaged 6.93M viewers from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m. ET. That was up 51%.

The first late-night hour from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. also saw a 51% audience increase with 8.12M viewers. The program peaked at 8.58m viewers in the 11:45pm quarter hour. In the second late-night hour. CBS dropped to 7.4M viewers, which is still up 56% from the same hour last year.

Nashville’s Big Bash was also live streamed on Paramount+ and CBS digital apps, where it saw a 100% audience increase. It was the #1 live streamed entertainment program of the day on the service on both reach and time spent.

It looks like audiences flocked back to broadcast this year to ring in the new year, since ABC also saw quite sizable growth for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

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